


A River Runs Through It

by VPABA



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Childhood Memories, Death, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fatherhood, Hurt/Comfort, Loss, Memories, Minisa Tully, Motherhood, One Shot, Red Wedding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:54:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23517250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VPABA/pseuds/VPABA
Summary: One shot: When Edmure Tully remembers his sister's death at the Red Wedding and tells some of his childhood to his daughter.
Relationships: Catelyn Stark/Ned Stark, Catelyn Tully Stark & Edmure Tully, Catelyn Tully Stark/Edmure Tully
Comments: 3
Kudos: 18





	A River Runs Through It

**Author's Note:**

> This is my very first try at writting asoiaf/Got  
> Hope you’ll appreciate!

The wind blew over the Red Fork, the wind rose the scent of burnt summer grass, the torrent in the river disturbed the quiet depth of the underwater world. The Lord of Riverrun stood on the bank of the river he had always known, a river he was born to, where he grew up, and where he kept living. The sun hit the back of his neck but he didn’t mind, it had always been this way.  
Edmure remembered all the time he had spent in his youth contemplating the way the river meandered, the large bed it rested in offered a landscape from west to east. He felt Riverrun was the meeting point between the Narrow and the Sunset Sea, it was the junction between the North and the South. Riverrun occupied the same place in him; it was the heart of him.

On the other side of the Red Fork Riverrun stood regally on the bank. The light of the sun reflecting on the white stone walls gave the castle a halo of light surrounded by the thousands of spots of lights on the flood.

Edmure took in the peacefulness the sight provided.

« Father! »

He turned around to see no one, looking more carefully he caught the glimpse of copper glints in the greenness of a bush. As he was approaching the hidden place, Edmure’s heart broke. His eight years old daughter sat in a very small area where the grass was untouched by the sun, where the shadow of the trees gave the place a feeling of safety.

Minisa smiled brightly at him, her blue eyes boring into his. Edmure stood still, a feeling of deja vu haunting him. His daughter looked the same his elder sister had, he could see her in the way his daughter sat and it reminded him of the numerous times he had found her here, laughing and hiding from their father.

His thoughts drifted to a particular day he had found his sister crying, he must have been six or seven by the time. His sister rarely cried, she had always been like a mother to him, or at least he remembered her that way. The last time he’d seen her cry was in Riverrun when she got word of the death of her two younger sons. Death...

_The eyes of Roose Bolton hovering him as he woke froze him. He pulled the sheets up to cover his naked body. Roslin Frey, no, Roslin Tully, was crying in a corner of the room, a single sheet covered her small form. Roose grinned as he ordered Edmure to wake up and dress._

_« Lord Tully! Let’s hope you put a babe in your wife’s womb, or else House Tully might just disappear entirely. »_   
_The puzzled face he wore was soon replaced with understanding when Roose’s men placed shackles around his wrists. They dragged him out of the room leading him in the hall he’d feasted in the day before. The sight of servants scrubbing dried blood on the floor and soldiers piling up dead, slaughtered Winterfell men made him want to throw up. His eyes widened in shock._

_« The King? »_

_Walder Frey patted his back. « Dead my lord! The wolf’s head planted on your nephew's shoulders. They say honor is part of the Tully’s words, they say honor is what Ned Stark lived for, yet neither Robb nor your sister respected their promises. Had you not wed Roslin, you’d be dead too. »_

_The viciousness and pleasure in the man’s eyes turned Edmure’s body to ice. Dead. His nephew was dead._

_« You might see your sister again. Tullys are trouts, maybe her body will float to Riverrun for you to see. » Edmure’s world fell to pieces. Dead. His sister was dead. His dear Catelyn._

_Emotions twirled in his mind, contradictory ones, empty ones. The shackles around his wrists suddenly felt like they bore the weight of the world. He needed to get out of this room. He needed to run to the river and find his sister, his nephew. They hadn’t deserved to die this way. It was his fault, he should have known better not to trust Freys._

_The need to scream invaded him, a sound of pain and grief came out of his throat, of his guts. The last thing he remembered of The Twins was a sharp pain on the back of his head which dived him into darkness._

_In the carriage that led his new bride and himself back to Riverrun, he couldn’t take his eyes off the river. Would he see her? Maybe his sister hadn’t been killed and she’d get out of the water at the last moment like he had seen her often do in Riverrun._

_But Edmure saw nothing. He never saw Catelyn again._

« Father? »

Edmure hadn’t felt his knees hitting the floor, only did his daughter’s fearful voice pulled him from his thoughts.

« Father? Why are you crying? »

He looked up and met the eyes he yearned for. Wiping a tear away he gathered the confused girl in his arms. The feeling of being here with his daughter in his arms was just as comforting as it brought a terrible sensation of emptiness. Was Minisa never born, we would have sunk in the deepest part of his mind.

« I was thinking about the past. Your aunt Catelyn often came here when we were younger. Right here… »  
The girl snuggled against him as he sat on the ground next to her.  
« The one I look like right? The other one is Lysa? » Edmure nodded. He had never told much of his sisters to Minisa, she was young, and speaking of dead people wasn’t an easy thing to understand for a six years old child, for anyone.

« Yes, the one you look like. You would have adored her Minisa. » The curiosity in his daughter’s eyes pushed him to continue. « Catelyn was probably the person I liked most, she had been there for me when I was young, just like a mother. » Minisa frowned. « You didn’t have a mother? » He shook his head. « I had one, but she died when I was very young. I never truly knew her. However, I knew Catelyn, and Lysa, and your grandfather Hoster. She had the warmth of a mother before even being one. You know, I almost believed it was her in the bush before I saw you Minisa. » The girl giggled, it only could be something good to hear, for she had only heard good stories of her aunt.

« Did she care for you as Mother does? »

« Aye. She would make sure I ate all my vegetables all the time. She would take me to bed and tuck me in and then I’d go sleep with her in her room, just like you do with your lady Mother. She taught me to swim, ride a horse… Catelyn would yell at me for going to the bank alone but altogether would end up in a water fight with aunt Lysa and myself. » Edmure’s voice weakened with each memory that crossed his mind.

« Why did she leave then if she cared for you? »

« Well, every lady has to marry and it is her duty to live with her husband. Your aunt married Eddard Stark, the lord of Winterfell, so she went north. Just like your aunt Lysa went to King’s landing when she married Jon Arryn. I never left Riverrun because I was its heir, the only boy. »

« But … who is Lord of Winterfell now? »

« Your cousin Sansa, she is the first to bear the same title a man would, for she is also the Queen in the North. Had your cousin Brandon not been chosen King, he would have been the Lord of Winterfell. And this because Sansa and Bran are the true-born children of Eddard Stark and your aunt Catelyn. »

Edmure smiled at the confusion on his daughter’s face. The story of Westeros was something hard to remember, yet everyone had to memorize it one day and Edmure felt like telling his sisters’lives was the best way for Minisa to understand the world.  
Catelyn had never failed to respect her house’s words, _family, duty, honor_ , and Edmure wanted her to be a model for Minisa to follow.

Edmure would forever mourn Catelyn, yet she lived on in his daughter’s eyes, in his heart. He was sure deep down his sister somewhat looked after him for as long as he’d be in Riverrun. The River had birthed them both, and in its depth would they remain forever.


End file.
